The subject matter described and/or illustrated herein relates generally to printed circuits, and more particularly, to the arrangement of vias within a printed circuit.
Printed circuits, sometimes referred to as “circuit boards”, are used with a wide variety of electrical connectors. For example, electrical connectors are often used to interconnect two printed circuits together. Printed circuits may also be used, for example, as backplanes of electrical connectors or as midplane circuits between two electrical connectors. The design of printed circuits is becoming increasingly complex. Such increased complexity may be caused by factors such as, for example, increasing data rates of signals conveyed by printed circuits, increasing numbers of input/output signals per printed circuit, decreasing sizes of printed circuits, increasing numbers of layers within printed circuits, increasing printed circuit thicknesses, and/or the like. Such factors may lead to an increasing density of vias within printed circuits.
Because of the increases in the density of vias within printed circuits, vias that transmit signals are experiencing increased amounts of signal degradation, such as impedance discontinuities, crosstalk, and/or the like. Crosstalk occurs when signals being transmitted by adjacent signal vias interfere with each other. For example, signal vias are sometimes arranged within a printed circuit in differential pairs. Interference between the signal vias of adjacent differential pairs may generate crosstalk. Crosstalk may lead to increased signal noise, which may make it more difficult to correctly interpret the signal. Signal degradation problems may be particularly noticeable at higher signal speeds. In current higher speed electrical systems, a via arrangement for mating with an electrical connector, sometimes referred to as a “footprint” of the printed circuit, may be the largest source of signal degradation within the system. Accordingly, there is a need for a printed circuit footprint having a reduced signal degradation.